Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Photo by Demure Storyteller on Unsplash.
The Virginia state board of education voted to adopt proposed new state science standards for 11 high school science courses that previously lacked standards, including Environmental Science, at its December 11, 2025, meeting.
The new standards specify (PDF) that students taking Environmental Science and two forms of Earth Science II, Advanced Survey of Earth Science Topics and Geology, will be expected to study climate change.
Presenting the proposed standards at the board's meeting, the department of education noted that one of the major themes expressed in comments from the public was "[s]upport for teaching climate science and climate change."
Asked to evaluate the proposed environmental science standards in November 2024, NCSE's Blake Touchet told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that they were a step in the right direction, as NCSE previously reported.
But Touchet warned that only a few students will take such a course, adding, "What really moves the needle on quality of climate change education is inclusion of good standards in required courses like middle school science and high school biology."
